


The Field Trip

by stellaisnotamermaid



Series: The Field Trip [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Field Trip, Gen, Interns & Internships, Rewrite, Stark Industries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23367013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellaisnotamermaid/pseuds/stellaisnotamermaid
Summary: Peter Parker had bad luck with field trips. He wasn't expecting this one to be any different.(or, a rewrite of the first fic I ever wrote 2 years later)
Relationships: Loki & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: The Field Trip [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680655
Comments: 14
Kudos: 556
Collections: Field trips to SI, peter parker and his field trips





	The Field Trip

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Field Trip](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365743) by [stellaisnotamermaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellaisnotamermaid/pseuds/stellaisnotamermaid). 



> It's wild how much my writing style has changed in two years, so I decided to rewrite an old fic that I used to love! I also have writer's block and enjoy editing so this was a way to procrastinate writing a fic that is going to be probably 30k at minimum and No Thank You, that is Way Too Long.

Class was almost over, and Peter, for one, couldn’t wait to get out. He’d just finished the exit ticket that Mr. Harrington had handed out—it was something that he’d taught himself how to do several years ago, so it wasn’t too difficult.

Mr. Harrington had said that there was a special announcement prepared for every science class, but that he was saving their class’ announcement until everybody had finished their classwork. On top of that, he had an actual, legitimate internship with Stark Industries now, and today was one of the days that he got to go up to Mr. Stark’s lab and work with him on whatever he decided.

He tapped his pencil against the desk, practically vibrating with energy.

The alarm on the SMART board hit zero and blared out its siren, and Mr. Harrington cleared his throat. “We only have a few more minutes left in class, so I need you to pass up your papers as quickly as possible so that I can talk about the special announcement.”

It was definitely the fastest that their class had ever turned in  _ anything _ , and Mr. Harrington seemed surprised at their timely manner. Even STEM kids liked to miss school, and whispers from students who had their science classes earlier in the day had leaked that it was a field trip of sorts.

Peter was dreading whatever was planned—he was unlucky enough as it was, but what little luck he had seemed to vanish on field trips: OSCORP, the AcaDec field trip last year… whatever this field trip was would most likely turn disastrous.

“Now, as I’m sure you’ve heard from your fellow classes, we’re going on a field trip on Friday! Due to the location of our field trip, there are a lot more rules than normal, and the rules are a lot stricter than they typically are.”

He handed a stack of permission slips to the people seated at the front of each row for them to pass back, talking as he went. “You may not touch anything without the tour guide’s express permission—you may  _ ask _ to touch things that they do not say you can touch, but expect the answer to be no. You may not wander away from the class, or you will be escorted down to the lobby and have to wait there until the end of the day. There’s a lounge so you won’t be too uncomfortable, but it will be quite boring and you will miss out on a  _ huge _ opportunity. You may take pictures unless the tour guide says that you cannot. Also, this field trip is free, so everybody is expected to go. You must be at school by 7:30 AM on Friday, or we will have to leave without you.”

The students that had gotten their permission slips broke out into not-quite-hushed whispers when he stopped talking.

“Sir?” Abraham asked. “Where are we going?”

Cindy, who sat in front of him, hadn’t passed him his permission slip yet because she was too busy staring at it in shock.

Peter got his paper from Flash, who hadn’t had a chance to look at it yet, and felt his heart plummet. Of  _ all _ the places that they could go, it had to be  _ there?  _ This was a disaster in the making!

“Stark Industries?” Cindy gasped once she could finally talk. “We’re going to  _ Stark Industries?” _

Half of the class whipped around to face Peter, who was trying very hard not to look like he was internally screaming. Ned, on the other hand, was nearly crying from how hard he was laughing. It wasn’t  _ fair. _ Nobody knew that Ned had an internship, and nobody believed that Peter had one.

“I'm going to die,” Peter whispered, face red. It was just his luck.

“I doubt that he'll embarrass you too much,” Ned snickered. He was wrong. So, so wrong. Tony didn't understand 'low-key'. He was going to mortify Peter.

Flash turned around, a huge grin on his face. “Hey, Parker, do you think you can get your friends, the Avengers, to show up?” He didn’t even wait for Peter to respond before wheezing and turning around to grin at his friends.

×××

“May, please.” Peter begged.  _ “Please _ don’t make me go. You  _ know  _ that Mr. Stark will embarrass me. He wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit him in the face.”

May covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide her laughter. “I'm sorry Peter, but you can't skip the field trip—you know your teacher said that everybody was expected to go, and besides, people will finally stop thinking that you've been lying about your internship.”

Even most of the teachers thought that Peter’s internship was fake—May had gotten multiple emails from multiple different teachers about it, even after they’d given official forms proving it to the main office. There were less highschool-aged interns than fingers on a hand, so the likelihood that  _ Peter Parker  _ was one seemed much less believable than the fact that he’d forged the papers. Principal Morita was the only person in the entire school that believed him.

Truthfully, he couldn’t blame them. At first, he  _ had  _ been lying—he'd just been doing Spider-Man related things, not actually been an intern. After the whole incident with the Vulture, Tony had taken him closer under his wing. He'd also given Ned an internship after seeing how good he was at coding and hearing about how he’d hacked into the suit that  _ Tony himself _ had designed for Peter.

Peter went over to the tower almost every day—some days he stayed on the intern floors, and others he went up to Tony’s personal lab. The Avengers knew him—not as Spider-Man (although he assumed that Natasha was beginning to suspect that he was the vigilante. She could sneak up on every single person in the world but him. He really needed to pretend not to notice her until she scared him.) but as Peter Parker, Tony Stark's personal intern/assistant.

He’d even met Loki—who had taken an immediate liking to the teenager.

They ate lunch together whenever he stopped by, and Peter was the only one who could sometimes calm Loki down. The “sometimes” was in reference to when Thor wasn’t there—if he was, then Loki tended to get even more riled up than usual when upset, and it was nearly impossible to calm him down.

“Fine.” Peter reluctantly agreed. “But you have to make sure that Mr. Stark doesn't embarrass me.”

“I'm not sure that I can do that, Peter, but I'll try.” She laughed.

He was doomed.

×××

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Ned exclaimed once they were seated on the bus. MJ had a doctor’s appointment scheduled, so she wasn't able to go today, but she’d told them to keep her updated on what was happening.

If she didn’t enjoy watching Peter have a crisis so much, he would have been nearly certain that she’d scheduled it that way just to torture him. She was in two science classes, and her other class was going on Monday, so she had chosen that date around her appointment.

Peter was mainly worried about the activity portion of the field trip—the class was going to be split into groups of three to work on a mini project, and he had no idea who their third group member would be.

“...Ned, you do realize that you're literally an intern at SI, right?” Peter asked him, pulling out his phone to text MJ that Ned was super excited.

“Yes, but I'm so excited to see Flash’s face when he realizes that you weren't lying! And I haven't been on the tour, and there's still a ton that I haven't seen!” Ned gasped. “Do you think that Thor will be there?”

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but Flash spoke over him.

“I can't believe that I forgot that Peter had the Avengers over for tea every Tuesday! Oh wait—you don't! You don't even have an internship!”

“Yes, he does!” Ned argued.

“I can't believe that you're stupid enough to fall for his lies!”

“Parker, Leeds, Thompson,” Mr. Harrington's voice snapped. “Is there a problem back there?”

“No, Mr. Harrington,” the three chorused, glaring at each other. Flash returned to his seat reluctantly.

“Anyway,” Peter continued, quieter than before. “Last I heard, he’s not on Earth, but he kind of just shows up whenever he feels like it.”

“Aw,” Ned complained. Then he brightened. “Do you think that Dr. Banner will be there? What about—”

“Ned.” Peter interrupted. “You've literally met all of them except Loki. And he doesn't count as an Avenger, anyway. You've had lunch with me on days where they decided to stop by and talk.”

“Oh my God, do you think that Loki will be there?”

Peter sighed.

This was going to be a long field trip.

×××

“Mr. Parker,” Mr Harrington started. He'd pulled Peter to the side after everybody had gotten off of the bus. Everybody else in the class—sans Ned, who was watching Peter worriedly—was ogling the tower.

“Yes?” Peter asked nervously. Yeah, he tended to wander off during field trips, but it wasn't like he did it often enough to be pulled to the side and warned not to. He’d only done it twice before! Or maybe three or four times, but what did that matter? It wasn't like it was even his fault half of the time.

Not that the teachers would know that. Maybe Mr. Harrington was right to pull him aside.

“I understand that teenagers tend to seek attention, but please, while you're here, don't continue to spread lies about your internship. It'll give our school a bad reputation, and then we won't be able to go on trips like this anymore.” 

“But I wasn't—” Peter began.

“I'm sure that you're aware that your GPA is only a 3.7 right now, due to absences, and all interns at Stark Industries must have a consistent GPA of 4.0, which can only dip below it for a week—and have graduated high school, according to their website. You meet neither of these qualifications that are necessary to even  _ apply,  _ let alone be accepted. I’m well aware that you’re one of the smartest kids in your classes, so you have to know how foolish it is to lie about that—especially when we’re  _ here.” _

“Mr. Harrington—” Peter tried.

“You may go back to the class now,” he replied firmly. Peter bit back his next words and walked back over to Ned. He'd thought that _ at leas _ t Mr. Harrington would believe him.

×××

The class filed into the building and Mr. Harrington went straight to the reception desk, the class following him like imprinted ducklings. “Hello, my class is supposed to have a tour scheduled for today? We're from Midtown.”

Five minutes later, after getting everything sorted out, a tour guide—Kathy, Peter thought—came over to their group. “Hello, Midtown. My name is Kathy, and I will be your tour guide today.”

Peter internally cheered upon hearing that he had remembered her name correctly. At least  _ something  _ was going his way.

She gave Mr. Harrington a handful of badges, each labeled with Zeta. “You must have these visible on your outfit at all times; our head of security is very picky about that. Follow me through these metal detectors, and I will answer any questions that you may have once we get over to the other side. Once everybody has their assigned badge, I’ll show you how to scan it in order to get through security.”

Mr. Harrington started handing out the badges, which had the student’s names written across the bottom in a relatively small font, as well as in braille. When he got over to Peter and Ned, he hesitated.

“Excuse me, Kathy,” Mr. Harrington called, volume relatively low in the din of the foyer of a multibillion dollar company. “I seem to be missing two passes? There are supposed to be some for Peter Parker and Ned Leeds?” He called over to the tour guide.

“Oh!” Kathy exclaimed. “I was a bit confused as to why only 23 badges were printed when I saw that there are 25 of you, so I double-checked it myself, and FRIDAY said that they already have badges—did you bring them with you?”

Peter grabbed his badge out of his wallet, flashing the piece of heavy plastic at her. “Yep!” He didn't even strictly need a pass—FRIDAY recognized his biometrics and Happy knew his face, but he had one for show anyway. Ned followed suit.

“Ah, thank you.” Mr. Harrington said awkwardly. Once she left them, he added on, “I'm sorry, Peter, for not believing you.” He glanced at Ned, then waited for Peter’s response.

“It's fine,” he replied stiffly. It hurt, but he was a… unique exception. He hadn't applied; Mr. Stark had come to him, and, by extension, Ned. Mr. Harrington flashed a small, apologetic smile, then walked over to the next student.

Flash walked over to Peter and Ned. “Hey, how come Mr. Harrington didn't give you guys badges? Did you get kicked out before the tour even began?” He snorted at his own joke.

“We have our own,” Peter stated, gesturing to the badge labeled Alpha on his shirt and the badge labeled Epsilon on Ned's.

“Wow, you made your own passes?” Flash asked. “I can't wait to see it not work when you try to get through security. They don't even  _ look  _ the same.” He turned on his heel and walked towards the line forming to pass through the metal detector.

_ Kathy Thomas, level Gamma _ . FRIDAY’s voice announced as the tour guide walked through the metal detector, showing them where to scan their badges.

“Whoa, what's that?!” Flash shouted, in awe.

“That's FRIDAY,” Kathy replied. “I'll tell you more about her once everybody has passed through the metal detector.”

_ Ned Leeds, level Epsilon. Welcome back, Ned. _

The kids who were still listening to FRIDAY gaped at Ned in awe. What had he done to get a different badge than them?

_ Peter Parker, level Alpha. Welcome back, Peter. Would you like me to notify Boss of your arrival? _

"No, I'm good!” Peter said hurriedly, rushing through the scanner. A few kids noticed, but most had already swarmed around Kathy, who was beginning to answer questions.

“As I said before, you must keep your badges on your outermost article of clothing. Before entering any room, you will have to scan it. Me—or another worker with my badge status or higher if I get pulled away—will have to scan their badge before you can.”

“What do you mean by badge status?” Cindy asked, looking at her badge.

“Great question! There are 5 different badge levels, and then several variations of each pass. Your level and color combined tell you where you may go without permission from somebody with a higher clearance level. Zeta, the badge level you have, is for guests. Tours get Zeta white, and the press or paparazzi get Zeta black.” She took a breath.

“Epsilon is for interns; Epsilon blue is for coding, green is for biological sciences, excluding medicines, which is red, yellow is for engineering, and there are a few others.

"Delta is for scientists, who may only go on the floor that their color dictates, but may go in every room on that floor, with a few exceptions.

"Gamma is for tour guides, who may go on most floors but not the lab rooms or meeting spaces.”

“Beta is for any business officials, such as those who work under Ms. Potts. Their color dictates their status, starting with navy blue, the lowest, then going up to maroon, and ending with jade.”

“Alpha is for Avengers and their families. Alpha indigo has access to the recreation and guest rooms, alpha silver has access to every floor, and alpha gold has access to every floor and Tony Stark's personal lab. There are only five people with this pass, but I am not able to tell you who has it.”

A few students stared at Peter in confusion, but he kept his eyes trained on Kathy.

“Where will we be going?”

“We're going to stop at some of the lower level labs, the mini museum, and hopefully the training room. I trust you gave them their waivers?” The last part was directed at Mr. Harrington.

“Yes, every student got theirs signed, don't worry.”

×××

They entered the first laboratory floor, which was blue, and Peter stood awkwardly by the back. Ned was next to him, looking as if he wished he were a chameleon. He definitely didn't want his coworkers to see him while he was on tour.

“This area is for coding, specifically for the Stark Phones. I believe that their current project is to work out a glitch that turned emoticons into emojis?”

Kathy glanced at Ned, who nodded in confirmation. Even if she didn’t know Ned or Peter by name, she still ran into them on tours often enough to know where they worked—well, where Ned worked. Peter was an enigma to most of the workers due to the randomness with where he showed up throughout the building. “Their previous project was to help everything move a little bit smoother and faster than before. For the most part, only interns worked on this project, but they are all extremely gifted and capable, so you don’t have to worry about your phone glitching!” She glanced at Ned as she said this, who glowed at the low-key praise from somebody that he'd only spoken to a few times before.

Kathy led the group over to an area that was set up with computers and robots. “Here, you may attempt to code a robot. Whoever has the most interesting but successful code gets to take their robot home. Please separate into groups of three.”

With MJ gone, Peter and Ned couldn't find a third partner. Once everybody else had found their groups, Mr. Harrington asked if there were any groups of two. Peter raised his hand, and Mr. Harrington sent Flash over to sit with them.

Peter tensed. This was... not ideal.

“I bet you losers don't even know how to code. Sit back, and I'll show you.” He announced, cracking his knuckles and shoving them out of the way. Peter shifted his weight onto his back foot so that he wouldn’t fall over and frowned.

Ned was about to open his mouth in protest, but Peter grabbed his arm to catch his attention. “We get to do this stuff nearly every day. Well—not this  _ exactly _ , but stuff that’s similar to or cooler than this."

Ned sighed. “Fine. But if he wins that robot, you're making me one.”

"... Fine, but you’re coding it."

“Deal.”

×××

One of the blue Deltas came over when their allotted time was up to judge them. Their robot went last, and all it did was drive forwards off the table and crash.

The scientist, Fred, frowned. “Ned, I've seen you do better work in your sleep! What happened?”

“Oh, uh,” Ned stammered, turning bright red.

“Flash wanted to do it by himself,” Peter interrupted. “We let him, seeing as we get to do this stuff all of the time.”

“Ah.” Fred replied, staring at Peter with a “Do I know you from somewhere?” look on his face. “Anyway, this group wins,” he said, pointing at Abe's group. They cheered, then started fighting on over who got to take the robot home.

“Thank Fred for the opportunity, class!” Mr. Harrington reminded everybody once they started to walk away. They paused and said thank you simultaneously, then followed Kathy back into the elevator.

Ned waved at Fred quickly then dashed to the elevator. Peter was only a couple seconds slower.

“Next, we're going to the bio labs. This section of them is mainly where superhumans test their abilities, and how their bodies interact with different chemicals like food or pain medication. The training rooms are right below us, and we will visit them after. I doubt that you'll see any superhumans in the labs right now, but it is possible. The most likely candidate is Dr. Banner, as he works here from time to time.”

Excited whispering broke out amongst the students, and Peter almost mentioned that Dr. Banner had gone away for the week. He then realized that a) if he said that his classmates would either not believe him or hound him with questions on how he knew and b) it would crush them. Having hope was better than nothing at all, even if the hope was misplaced.

He hoped.

The elevator dinged, and the students poured out of the cramped doors. One of the scientists came over to their group. “Midtown?” She asked, directing the question at Kathy.

“Yes.” Kathy replied. “Could you explain to them how you measure superhuman abilities?”

“Of course,” the scientist said. “Follow me.”

They all walked over to one of the labs, which was empty of workers. There were scales, punching bags, weight machines, and treadmills, among other things. Peter had judged his abilities here with Mr. Stark after hours, due to not being able to wear his suit while doing it and having a secret identity.

“Steve Rogers, for example, can bench press over three thousand pounds, and run faster than 90 miles an hour. We have not measured the strength of King T'Challa of Wakanda, but know that he can best Steve Rogers in a fight. We are unaware as to whether this was due to his suit or abilities as Black Panther, and whether this was because of his strength and speed or agility and strategy, so we cannot accurately estimate any of his abilities.”

One of the kids raised their hands, so she paused. “Yes?”

“Why haven't you measured the Black Panther’s strength?”

“That's actually a really good question! The short answer is that we have not had an opportunity to, yet, since he lives in Wakanda and tends to be busy. Now, the Winter Soldier has been able to beat Captain America in fights before, and Spider-Man was able to stop a punch from the Winter Soldier, but, as stated before, this is not information that we could accurately take data other than hypotheses from. We have been unable so far to measure either of their strengths, but plan to in the future. Would anybody like to try to measure their strength, or how fast they can run?”

“Step aside, Parker,” Flash said, shoving Peter out of the way. He walked over to the bench press and put 50 pounds on it. He wasn't able to lift it, and a few of the kids snorted. “Yeah? I bet you can't lift fifty pounds! Especially not you, Parker.”

Peter sighed. It wasn't like 50 pounds was a lot—most kids his age could lift that, and the average weight for a cis teenage boy was 70. He wasn't sure whether or not he'd been able to lift it before the spider bite, but he doubted that anybody would be suspicious, as long as he pretended to struggle a little.

He stepped up to the bench press, and adjusted the weight to 60—a little below average. It was almost effortless, but he grunted and pretended it was difficult to protect his identity.

Flash scowled, and grumbled about having hurt his wrist the other day. Then he saw the treadmills, and a smile made its way back onto his face. “Yeah? Well I doubt that anybody here can run as fast as me. My name is Flash, after all.”

“I'm afraid that with all of your boasting, we may not have a chance. We have to move on to the training room, now.” Kathy interrupted. A few kids snickered. Peter sighed in relief. He didn't want to look like a coward, but he already knew how fast he could run, and wasn’t entirely in the mood to prove himself to Flash.

He didn't  _ like  _ to run, but he could run roughly 80 miles per hour if he needed to in an ideal environment, last he’d checked. If he added in swinging around buildings and doing parkour, he was a  _ lot _ faster than that.

The class thanked her in unison, then followed Kathy out of the lab.

“I'm not sure whether any of the Avengers will be training, or any of the workers on their breaks, but these two floors are for training rooms,” Kathy said as the elevators went down. “In order to not annoy any workers, we are only going on the floor just for the Avengers. They never seem to mind being interrupted too much.”

That was an understatement. Being distracted didn’t impede any of their training, and half of them thrived under the attention.

Once they got out of the oversized elevators, the class piled against the windows into the training room. Mr. Harrington was no exception. Ned pushed forwards as well, starstruck even after meeting them multiple times each. Peter hung back, content to procrastinate running into any of the Avengers and being embarrassed for as long as possible.

Peter spotted Natasha and Clint in the far end of the room, but nobody else seemed to notice them. He groaned, then walked closer to the glass and realized that it was because a third person was in the training room, much closer to the glass. Steve Rogers.

Peter was dead. Once Steve had apologized to Tony about their… skirmish… Peter had gotten somewhat closer to him, but their not-quite-friendship consisted of pranking each other to the point of embarrassment.

“I know, Ned.” Peter whispered back. "I can see him."

Kathy opened the door and led them inside after making sure that nothing would fly towards them and cause possible injury. Peter panicked, clinging close to Ned. 

“Hello, Mr. Rogers. This is Midtown High, and I was wondering if they could watch you train, and maybe you could teach them a tiny bit of self-defense?”

“Sure,” he replied. “And it's Steve, you don't have to call me Mr. Rogers, or Captain, or anything.” He turned to face the far corner of the training room, where Nat and Clint were practicing. “Natasha! Clint! Come over here.”

“Oh my god, Peter, look, the Black Widow is coming over here. I think I might faint.” Ned whispered.

Natasha glanced up, scanning the crowd. She noticed Peter, and smiled. He was  _ definitely _ dead at this point.

“As if the Black Widow would pay someone like you any attention,” Flash snorted.

Peter hadn't realized that he'd said the last bit aloud. Judging on the look on Natasha's face, she'd heard both of them. That… wasn't ideal. He could make it work, though. Flash was just kidding. They were friends. It was a joke—

“Everybody, separate into groups of two,” Steve announced. Ned and Peter drifted away from the group a little bit, and everybody else separated, too.

“This is so cool!!” Ned whisper-screamed. “The Avengers are teaching us how to defend ourselves!!”

Natasha spoke up, “First, you want to get into this position,” she began.

×××

Peter had to go easy on Ned, scared of accidentally hurting his friend. Ned, on the other hand, was trying his hardest. But when you weren't trained in self-defense, it was very hard to be even with a superhero, despite how little they were trying.

“Okay, you're doing a good job, but I think it's time that you swap partners. Everybody has a unique fighting style, even people who were instructed by the same teacher.” Natasha announced.

Flash strutted over to Peter. “I bet I could beat you in my sleep,” he announced, cocky. Ned glanced sympathetically at Peter, then wandered over to another student.

Peter smiled sarcastically at Ned, practically begging him to kidnap him.

“We're going to see who can last the longest in a mini fight.” Natasha told the class. “Please refrain from scratching at your partner or aiming at the head. In a real fight, anything goes, but these are your classmates, and you may get into trouble at your school despite the waivers you signed, since not everybody seems to care about them.”

Flash smirked. “Now there's no way you're winning, Parker.” Peter resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Five seconds later, Flash was on the ground calling uncle. Peter hadn’t even moved other than to avoid a punch. He stood up and offered his hand to Flash, who scowled and ignored the offered help.

“I tripped,” he announced.

Peter ignored him, but the rest of the people who had overheard him laughed. It appeared as though the majority of people in the room had noticed Flash fall, if he was being honest. Nat had a tiny smile on her face, and Steve nodded at Peter.

The rest of the groups were still fighting, so Peter sat on the ground to wait for them. None of them lasted very long, and Natasha started speaking again. Clint and Steve were standing off awkwardly to the side.

“For the next thing, I need a volunteer.” Everybody but Peter raised their hands. When he saw the slight smirk on the assassin's face, dread filled him.

“...You,” she said, pointing at Flash.

He looked smug as he walked up to her, but his footsteps were shaky and unsure. “Get into a defensive position,” she told him, then started teaching the class how to do the next thing.

Flash was on the floor within seconds. “I, uh, tripped over something,” he sputtered. Nat raised her eyebrows at him and he turned red.

Natasha pulled Peter aside as the class was leaving. “We're talking about him later.” He nodded and ran after his class, certain that he was going to avoid the topic of Flash as much as possible.

They went to the cafeteria right after that, and the students suddenly realized that almost none of them had brought money for food. Kathy blinked when one of them told her this.

“What do you mean, ‘money for food’?” she asked. “Did you not tell them that the entire trip was free?” she directed the last bit to Mr. Harrington, a frown on her face.

“I did,” he assured her. “I think they didn't realize that this included food.”

“Oh!” she laughed. “You can get any food from here. If you have any dietary restrictions, the food you can eat will be marked on the menu, or you can ask a chef. When you're done eating, there is a compost and recycling bin. Please place your utensils and plates above them.”

The class separated and each went to a different area of the cafeteria—it was more like a food court than an actual cafeteria, as there were different ‘restaurants’ with different food types.

Peter grabbed lasagna and sat down at a table a little bit away from the group. Ned came over after grabbing his food.

“That was so cool! Do you think that we'll see any more Avengers?” Ned asked excitedly.

“I hope not,” Peter replied. “Did you see Nat's face? She looked like she was about to kill Flash.”

“I'm offended,” a voice said from behind them. “You don't want to see me?” Peter sputtered, twirling around.

“Mr. Stark!” he yelped. “Hi—how are you—what are you doing here?”

“I can't just stop in to say hi?” he asked, the smile on his face betraying his attempt at seeming innocent.

Peter raised his eyebrows.

“Okay, Nat texted me and said that there was a kid bullying you so I stopped by to see if I could help.”

“No, no, it's fine! It doesn't even bother me! I think he's just jealous or something, right Ned?” Ned made no move to respond. “Ned.”

Ned jumped at hearing his name. “Huh? Yeah, yeah. Probably.” Peter internally facepalmed at his friend's fanboying. He literally  _ interned  _ here. He’d met Tony countless times. Habits were hard to break, though.

“See? It's fine.”

“Okay. But if it gets worse, you come to me.” Tony said. His phone chimed, and he looked down at it. He groaned. “I'll see you later.” Peter prayed he didn't, at least while his class was still there.

Then he was gone. Luckily, nobody had noticed him.

If Peter hadn’t been so hungry, he would have buried his face in his arms and never moved again. As it was, he turned bright red and ate his lasagna as quickly as possible.

Once Peter finished eating his lasagna, he went to clean up his plate and silverware. He was about to sit down again when Ned froze, staring at something behind him. Peter turned around and broke out in a grin.

“Mr. Loki!” He exclaimed, running over to the entrance of the cafeteria. “I thought you and Mr. Thor wouldn't be here this week?”

“He will not be, thankfully, but I decided to come visit. What are you doing here? Don't Midgardian children have school on Fridays?”

“Oh!” Peter replied. “We do, but my class is taking a field trip here! So far it's been kind of a mess. You could probably ask Kathy if you wanted to tag along. Not that you have to! I'm sure you have a lot more important stuff to do!”

Loki smiled. “Not particularly. I'll go ask her.”

×××

When they continued the tour, Loki was nowhere in sight. Peter tried not to feel disappointed, but it was hard. He'd been looking forward to the god hanging out with them.

They went to the bio labs, and looked at all of the current low-level projects. “Hey, Parker,” Flash started. “How come none of the scientists have asked you about your internship, huh? I thought you were an intern. I guess it's just another lie you've told.”

Peter bit his tongue so as to not snap at Flash.

"Leave him alone, Flash.” Ned warned.

“We've been to almost every type of lab by now. People recognized Leeds, why hasn't anybody recognized you? How much did you have to pay to get a badge? Or did Leeds steal it for you?”

“Leave him alone,” a man's voice warned from a little farther down the hall. Flash's face drained of blood as he saw who it belonged to, and he backed away.

“Mr. Loki!” Peter exclaimed. “I assumed that Kathy told you you couldn't hang out with us because I didn't see you!”

“She just told me I had to clear it with Stark first. He wasn't happy, but he let me.”

Thunder crashed suddenly, and Loki glared at the ceiling.

“Can't I have one miserable moment without him?” He muttered.

Ned glanced at Peter. “Does that mean—” Peter nodded sharply. “Oh my God!!!” He glanced at Loki. “Uh, no offense—”

“I'm used to it.” Loki cut him off. Peter felt a slight pain in his chest at Mr Loki's words. He moved closer to the god.

Kathy hadn’t noticed the thunder, but the few students who had noticed Mr. Loki saw his reaction to it and all but lit up in excitement. When their friends asked them what they were so excited about, they too lit up, until the whole class was whispering about Thor.

Peter did his best to ignore their whispering, praying that Thor didn’t interrupt their tour. Loki seemed to be wishing the same thing.

×××

They walked into the museum floor, which had the history of Stark Industries, Iron Man, and… Peter's original Spider-Man suit? How had Mr. Stark gotten this? He couldn't remember seeing it since he got the newer suit back, but he was  _ certain  _ that he'd had it in his closet.

“Oh my God, Peter!” Ned exclaimed. “They have an exhibit on you!”

“Ned!” Peter yelped, shoving his hand in front of his friend's mouth. "Quiet!"

“Sorry,” Ned whispered, pulling Peter’s hand away.

Peter glanced at Loki, who seemed just as disinterested in this piece of information as he was the museum itself—which is to say,  _ very _ . Upon feeling Peter watching him, he glanced up. “Was that a secret?”

“Yes.” Peter said, eyeing Ned. “Please don't tell anybody.”

“It's really obvious, but I won't tell anybody.” Peter panicked upon hearing these words.

“But then again, Midgardians—and my brother—tend to be quite gullible and miss what’s right in front of them.”

×××

After they’d cycled through the museum, Kathy led them down to the foyer again, and Mr. Loki disappeared to what Peter could only hope was the living quarters.

“So,” Flash said, making his way over to Peter and Ned. “How much did you pay him to hang out with you?”

“What? I didn't pay him. He doesn't even have a use for money.”

“Sure, a god just decided to hang out with you because you're so cool.” Flash snapped. “How did you do it?”

“I—” Peter began.

“He met Loki through me.” Flash looked up and saw Tony Stark standing in the hallway. “My personal intern gets to do a lot more than most of the other ones. Any other questions?”

Flash backed away, almost tripping over his feet.

“No, I'm good. I'm good.”

Mr. Stark glared at him, then turned to Peter and Ned. “Your aunt, and your mom, gave you permission to stay here after the field trip. I just need to talk with your teacher really quickly.”

“Thanks! It was super annoying that I was going to have to be bused back to school only to come right back here,” Peter said.

“Uh, thank you, Mr. Stark.” Ned mumbled.

“No problem, Ted.” Mr. Stark replied, then walked over to Mr. Harrington.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it :)


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